merry land

I had to travel to Baltimore for work. It's the same cost to expense driving as it is booking a flight, so I loaded up Mark and the kids and took them with me. We drove through Pennsylvania to get to Maryland and only when we were coming into town did I realize that Baltimore is kind of a suburb of Washington D.C. While I was in my first day of meetings, Mark took the babies down to see the White House, the Reflection Pool, the Washington Monument, etc. I'm pretty jealous because I've never been. But, they just drove around to save the touring of Jefferson Museum and walking around the different places to do when we go out for a longer, more recreational trip. In the evening, we headed out to downtown Baltimore to check out a bookstore Mark heard about. I found more books than he did, for once.

Then after my second day of meetings, we drove through Delaware, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and back into the tip of Maryland where it meets the Atlantic to spend the rest of the weekend in my boss's condo in Ocean City. There was "SunFest" going on, which meant professional trick kiters were out doing their thing and a boat-load of megaphone toting import car show dorks were driving around their dad's pimped out saturns and neons. It was quite fun. We were just 500 feet or so off the beach and the weather cooperated, so we were able to walk down to the beach and let Zola collect shells. She absolutely HATES the sand, but loves the beach. She likes to sit on the edge of the blanket and play with sticks, shells, and rocks. We also walked the boardwalk, ordered pizza and sipped some mexican beers. It was pretty relaxing, if you don't count chasing a 2 year old non-stop (which is exhausting).




The drive home was long enough to make me note that we'll need to take days off if we want to do that again. We were hoping to stop by and say hi to an old friend of Mark's from High School who lives and works near D.C., but the drive... ugh. I've driven one-way narrow roads in London in rush hour. I've driven the worst routes in rush hour in LA. And, the east coast really knows how to have traffic. They have them all beat. And there are some really stupid road designs... I don't like to use the word "stupid" very often. I reserve it for special kinds of dumb. Whoever you are who designed the one lane two freeway split off-ramp... you are stupid. Whoever you are who decided to put 12 lanes if toll booths prior to the two-lane bay bridge, you are stupid. And whoever invented toll roads, you are also stupid (actually, you're probably a very savvy business person for monopolizing all the gas station/restaurant pull offs, but I hate you anyway.)

two peas in a pod

Yesterday Zola woke up at an ungodly hour. I got up and went into her room with her so the rest of the family could sleep in. She was playing quietly with her toys while I sorted and organized the kids' stuff.

When Mark got up, he set her free. I thought he took her with him and he thought she stayed with me. What she did do, I wish I had a picture of.

When we found her, she was sitting IN the baby bassinet, with the baby, and almost on her head. She had pulled a lot of Mark's heavy text books off the shelf and nearly covered herself AND the baby. They both were giggling. What happy mischief makers.

Then later that day, I caught Zola kissing Viola. Kissing is her latest thing. She likes to grab you by your ears, do something that seems an awful lot like head bunting, and then she smootches you with a big smack. But, since Viola is so small, to really get a good grip on her ears, she has to lay completely over her face and smother her. True Love. Adorable.